By MIKE BILLINGTON AND JEFF MONTGOMERY
Staff reporters
01/15/2004

New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey expressed concern Wednesday about a proposal to process waste from a deadly chemical weapon at a Salem County plant and dump the material into the Delaware River.

The nerve agent, liquid VX, is so deadly that a fraction of a drop on the skin is likely to be fatal.

In a letter to Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee, McGreevey asked for an extension of the period for public comment on the proposal. He also asked Brownlee to hold a public meeting on the subject.

Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner also said she wants to learn more about the proposal.

"Several of us have been concerned about that and have talked to some of our people in Washington," Minner said Wednesday. "I have questions."

The Army's plan is to destroy stockpiles of millions of gallons of VX at its Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana.

After that treatment, the waste would be shipped to the DuPont Company's Chambers Works Secure Environmental Treatment Unit at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Deepwater, N.J., for further treatment.Then the waste would be dumped into the Delaware River.

In his letter to Brownlee, McGreevey said that he was "concerned about the failure to consult with the public and affected state and local agencies regarding this proposal."

He said he considered it inappropriate that the Army's environmental assessment of the proposed treatment plan was only published as a legal notice in one South Jersey newspaper. He also said it was inappropriate that the assessment was not made available to his state's Department of Environmental Protection for review.

Environmental groups throughout the Delaware Valley also have objected to the Army's proposal.

In anticipation of the proposal's approval, DuPont already is conducting treatment trials on VX wastes at the Chambers Works unit.

The facility, one of the world's largest industrial wastewater treatment plants, had trouble fully treating similar material from the same nerve-weapon stockpile in Indiana in tests during the mid-1990s. Treatment methods have improved since then, according to DuPont and Army officials.

Salem County was not the Army's first choice for treating these waste materials, a fact that is not lost on environmental groups. In December, the Pentagon scrapped a plan to send the same wastes through a Dayton, Ohio, treatment system. A report commissioned by Montgomery County, Ohio, said proposed treatment methods need more testing.

Reach Mike Billington at 324-2771 or mbillington@delawawareonline.com.
Reach Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.